Ellen McIlwaine: Your School Bus Driver Jammed With Jimi Hendrix

Ellen McIlwaine, one of the greatest practitioners of slide guitar ever, soulful powerhouse vocalist extraordinaire, poet, composer, songstress, lyricist, recording artist, painter, visual artist, interpreter of song and more. She was all that and then some...

Join us in our celebration of the life and artistry of this giant amongst musicians, this icon, this goddess...

Ellen McIlwaine's life and times explored through the lens of the newly posted CBC Docs YouTube channel music documentary "Goddess Of Slide" from Soul Flicker Films, an Alfonso Maiorana production https://youtu.be/SCTety1hwdI?si=PC2ux8sTlD5_Occr

As far back as 1973 the impact of Ellen McIlwaine's presence has been deeply felt and loomed large in the personal life of Rock N Roll Fashionista's host Sean Passmore (AKA "unimportant").

Join Passmore as he outs himself as the guy who made the phone call that changed McIlwaine's life.

Passmore sets the record straight on one singular inaccurate fact in this otherwise thoroughly inspiring love letter to McIlwaine who passed away quite suddenly at the age of 75 in 2021, six weeks after receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer.

McIlwaine's music weaves poignantly through Passmore's life through personal recollections and anecdotes of Swami Bill, Brother Tommy and others in the colorful cast of characters from the Rock N Roll Fashionistas universe.

Did a teenage Passmore put an impertinent and inappropriate move on the middle-aged McIlwaine while making an embarrassingly inebriated song request in a bar?

And did McIlwaine play the song?

Would this same song fatefully draw McIlwaine & Passmore together again over a decade later with surprising, life altering results?

FIND OUT NOW and SO MUCH MORE on the latest episode of Rock N Roll Fashionistas

THE SONGS:

Opening Track: "Can't Find My Way Home" is a song written by Steve Winwood that was first released by Blind Faith on their self titled 1969 debut album. They were an English rock supergroup consisting of Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech. They followed the success of each of the member's former bands, including Clapton and Baker's former group Cream and Winwood's former group Traffic but split up after a few months, producing only one album and a three-month summer tour. McIlwaine's cover of the song appears of her debut solo album Honky Tonk Angel released by Polydor Records in 1972 https://music.apple.com/ca/album/cant-find-my-way-home/1444004698?i=1444005078

"Higher Ground" is a song written by Stevie Wonder that first appeared on his 1973 album Innervisions. The song reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the US Hot R&B Singles chart. Wonder wrote and recorded the song in a three-hour burst of creativity in May 1973. McIlwaine's stunning reinterpretation of the song appears on her 1975 3rd album The Real Ellen McIlwaine released by Montreal, Canada label Kot'Ai Records https://music.apple.com/ca/album/higher-ground/932879780?i=932882018

"Down So Low" was written by American R&B and country music singer/songwriter Tracy Nelson. McIlwaine's stunning reinterpretation of the song appears on her 1975 3rd album The Real Ellen McIlwaine released by Montreal, Canada label Kot'Ai Records https://music.apple.com/ca/album/down-so-low/932879780?i=932882059